100 lawmakers call for banning dismemberment and 20-week abortions

Pennsylvania lawmakers are pushing for legislation that would ban all elective abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy, and ban the dismemberment abortion method earlier in pregnancy.

Introduced in the state House on Friday, HB 1948 would prohibit abortions done at or past 20 weeks, as well as the second-trimester dilation & evacuation procedure, known as dismemberment abortion. The procedure is labeled as such because the abortionist uses forceps to tear the child apart in the womb limb from torso. The only exceptions to those provisions are in cases involving the life of the mother.

Abortion defenders often take issue with the rationale for both restrictions, but medical evidence suggests preborn babies are capable of feeling pain around 20 weeks, and the term “dismemberment” accurately reflects the National Abortion Federation’s own materials on D&E abortions.

“This has been shown to be when all babies are capable of feeling pain and when the likelihood of a substantial complication for the mother seems to increase,” says a memo by the bill’s three leading sponsors, Republicans Kathy Rapp and Bryan Cutler and Democrat Bryan Barbin.

HB 1948, which currently has approximately 100 co-sponsors, is sitting before the House Health Committee, and could receive a floor vote in a matter of weeks. However, Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf opposes the legislation.